The present invention relates to a blood vessel extroverting instrument used to turn an end of a blood vessel inside out.
In the field of surgery, a method of connecting ends of two blood vessels or an end and a side portion of two blood vessels by using a clip in the form of a ring (hereinafter referred to as “clip ring”) as well as suture ordinarily performed is known as a method of anastomosis of blood vessels. Anastomosis using such a clip ring attracts attention because of its potential for reducing the time required for a manual procedure, and because it can be performed with no possibility of some material (e.g., a suture) other than the endothelium of a blood vessel contacting the bloodstream in the blood vessel and, hence, no risk of formation of a thrombus.
In anastomosis using a clip ring, there is a need to turn inside out (extrovert) an end of a blood vessel inserted in a clip ring. Conventionally, this extroverting operation is performed by using a method of passing a string through several places in an end portion of a blood vessel and pulling the string or a method of turning an end of a blood vessel by pinching it between tweezers.
The above-described conventional methods, however, require a high degree of handling skill and a long time to complete extroversion and entail a risk of easily damaging an end of a blood vessel.